At the end of June we drove to Cincinatti, OH for a reunion of families who had adopted, or are in the process of adopting from Bulgaria. It was a great weekend for both us and the kids. We were finally able to meet many of our online friends in person and see the children whose stories we had followed.
During the day there was a splash pad for the kids, minute to win it games and plenty of play time to meet new friends. At night there were pot luck dinners, traditional Bulgarian music and dancing, and time spent listening to each other's adoption stories. This was a great weekend to learn Bulgarian culture, talk to other adoptive families and simply spend time together as a family.
The kids spent most of their time together in the cul de sac of cabins. They were different ages, nationalities, backrounds and special needs. The thing that really impressed us was that the kids were so well behaved. They were all polite and respectful and there was not a single incident or fight during the entire weekend.
We stayed a couple days longer to visit the Creation Museum. We all enjoyed it but it was a bit much for our 8 and under kiddos. Lots of reading, and while some of them can read, they didn't read a full priced ticket's worth. But they all loved it and we're glad we went.
We can't wait to go to the reunion next year. We look forward to time with our new friends and meeting the new family members that have come home from Bulgaria (and other countries) since June.
We are so thankful to Yvonne and Viviane for their hard work in making this reunion such a great success.
On our way home we stopped in Kentucky to meet other online adoptive friends, the Waggoners. We met them way back when we were in the Albania program before the agency closed the program. The Waggoners adopted their 2 kids from Albania and are in the process of raising support to move to Albania as missionaries. We were so glad to have met them in person. They are an amazing family and we are looking forward to spending some more time with them when they come through Georgia on their support raising venture.
No comments:
Post a Comment